First TigerHawk XC Invitational in the books

This was the 42nd year for the event, but the first with the new name since the whole-grade sharing agreement.

The TigerHawk girls placed second among the 12 full teams; 17 different schools were represented. Cascade repeated as champion with their top five runners placing 1, 3, 8, and 16, for 61 total points.

The top five NFV gals placed 9, 12, 13, 25, and 28 for 87 points. That was good enough to beat third-place Elkader, which had 98 points. It marked the second straight week the TigerHawks have topped the Warriors in a meeting of teams each ranked in the top 10 of their respective classes.

Clayton Ridge’s Jasmine Staebler had the best time among UIC schools, finishing second with a time of 16:04. Kylie Kelchen of Cascade won in 15:49. The course record of 14:44.6 was set by Katy Moen of Wapsie Valley.

For NFV, Natalie Moyle set the pace with a 16:57. Kortney Pleggenkuhle and Paige Gibson were both hot on Moyle’s heels with a 17:05 and 17:06, respectively. Megan Feldman and Rebecca Miller completed the TigerHawk scoring with times of 17:31 and 17:37, respectively.

Moyle, Pleggenkuhle Gibson and Feldman all won medals for finishing in the top 25.

For the boys, Danny Halva led the way with his third-place finish; his time was 17:00.

Devon Monnahan also earned a medal with a ninth-place finish in a time of 17:36.

As a team, the boys were a very respectable fifth in a field of 13 teams, several of which are ranked.

Denver won with 58 points. Western Dubuque and Osage were two-three with 74 and 79 points, respectively. Turkey Valley continues to impress early in the season, placing fourth with 112 points.

Individually, Western Dubuque’s Mitchell McAndrew won with a time of 18:08, well behind Connor Smock’s course record of 16:02.

Halva had the fastest time of any UIC runner.

In the JV races, the NFV boys were fourth of the six full teams running; the girls did not have a full team.